There are a number of athletic backstop devices known to the art and related specifically to baseball or golf. Among such devices are those described by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,497,485 to Macosko, 3,810,616 to Murphy, 3,698,712 to Pero, 3,197,208 to Makar, 2,978,246; to Gronigen, 2,895,737 to Blees, and 2,126,102 to Fowler. Most of these prior inventions have been intended for meeting special needs as presented by specific problems relative to the game of baseball or golf addressed in each of the prior inventions, and have, therefore, served narrow limited purposes.
For many years the state of the art method of developing football passing skills was to suspend a tire from a tree limb and throw through the center of the tire as it moved back and forth. Although this technique may have served some limited purpose, it did not provide the refinement necessary to efficiently and effectively develop a football player's skills. After a football player had thrown the football, it was necessary for that player to move to the site of the tire in order to steady the tire for the next throw. The interruption of the passing drill and the time necessary to move to the site of the tire in order to steady it for the next throw, was always necessary unless the tire was completely missed by the prior throw. In addition, it was necessary for the football player to also expend time and energy in finding the ball for the purpose of throwing it again. Such a procedure, involving the loss of time and energy, tended to limit the effectiveness of the practice technique by virtue of the fact that over two-thirds of the practice time was spent preparing to throw the football again. The present invention was conceived and designed to address these problems.
In utilizing the present invention for target practice passing, the football player or other game player may leave the target in a steady position (non-movable) and pass the ball at a rigid target zone. The football will be caught by the backnet provided in the present invention whether it goes through the target or not. In an alternate embodiment the target is provided with its own net section for easy retrieval of balls that have gone through the target. Therefore, the player is simply able to retrieve the football or other ball and prepare to throw again. In addition, it is an advantage of the present invention that the practicing player can throw at the target either straight away in alignment with the target or at a severe side angle. The side angle passing is not possible with the old tire method due to the width of the tire in relation to the size of the center target area. It is an additional advantage of the present invention that if the football strikes the target of the present invention as a result of being passed by the football player, the spring-loaded hinge, a part of the present invention, returns the target to its normal position for the next pass attempt, thus doing away with the necessity to move to the site of the target to steady the target for the next pass attempt. It is an additional advantage of the present invention that the target can be set into motion for timing practice, thus providing the football player or other practicing player with a moving target for the further development of the football passer's technique and timing or refinement of movement skills related to other games. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a football passing target apparatus which will economize time and energy in resetting the target means and collecting the footballs once they have been thrown.
A further object of the present invention is to refine the training process by allowing the football player or other player to concentrate his efforts on passing and timing as it relates to the act of actually passing the football or providing movement to another ball.
A still further object of the invention herein described is o provide a means of practicing passing or movement of a ball from acute angles on the practicing field.
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide a target which can be easily reset, and from which balls can be collected easily, for a center to practice snapping the ball to simulate a punting or kicking situation, thus providing long snap center practice or other types of practice for punting or kicking situations.